What does it really take to care for student athletes in a way that honors their talent, their health, and their humanity?
In Episode 4 of the Unfiltered podcast, host Tiffany Whitlow heads to Chicago to sit down with Jordan McCann, Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach and Recruiting Director at Loyola University. Their conversation moves from the hardwood to home life, from medical screenings to mental health, and from game strategy to end-of-life planning. At every turn, one theme keeps coming up: none of us can do this alone. It truly takes a village.
Coaching at Home
For Jordan, Loyola is more than a job. It is a homecoming. Growing up on the South Side of Chicago, he dreamed of building a life in his city. Now he’s coaching Division I women’s basketball in front of his family and raising a daughter not far from where he grew up.
He and his wife moved back from New York while she was pregnant, driving 13 hours to start a new chapter. What made that transition possible, he says, was Loyola’s culture. Head Coach Allison Guth and the administration didn’t just welcome him as a staff member, they welcomed his family as their own. That family-first environment is the backdrop for everything he does with his players.
Recruiting the Whole Person
As Recruiting Director, Jordan is tasked with bringing talent to what they affectionately call the “resort on the lake,” thanks to Loyola’s lakeside campus. But when he talks about recruiting, he rarely mentions stats first.
He describes a program that is intentionally built around the whole person. The staff wants to know who their athletes are when they’re not in uniform – what they care about, what they dream of, what they need when home is hundreds of miles away.
The goal is to give players a sense that they are more than just a position or a box score. For many of them, the program becomes an extension of family, not just a stepping stone in their careers.
Health, Screening, and Safety on the Court
The conversation turns to health when Tiffany shares her own experience as the parent of a Division I athlete. She remembers being surprised by the additional screenings required before her son could play in college; things like sickle cell testing and deeper cardiac evaluations.
Jordan explains that Loyola takes these screenings seriously for their athletes as well. When players arrive, they go through comprehensive health assessments with the athletic department and trainers. Those results matter on game day. If someone is at higher risk for heart issues, has asthma, or has a history of seizures, the staff needs to know so they can protect that player in real time.
In a sports landscape where sudden health events in young athletes are far too common, he frames this kind of screening as essential, not optional. It’s one of the ways the program lives its commitment to caring for players beyond their performance.
Normalizing Mental Health in Sports
Mental health is another throughline. Tiffany shares how, in her own home, she’s working to separate “mental health” from the stigma of “mental illness” so that emotions and stress can be talked about openly. That same shift is happening inside Jordan’s program.
Loyola has in-house sports psychologists who work with athletes before and during their time on campus. Players complete mental health screening as they enter the program, and they can schedule therapy around practice and classes. But resources alone are not enough.
Jordan emphasizes that the coaching staff has to go first. He and his colleagues talk about their own highs and lows, their own struggles and stressors. When athletes see their coaches being honest about their lives, it sends a powerful message: it is okay to ask for help. It is okay to need support. It is okay to be human in a high-performance environment.
Golf, Fatherhood, and Finding Boundaries
When Tiffany asks what he does to take care of himself, Jordan doesn’t give a polished answer. He gives a real one.
He admits that for most of his career he didn’t know how to balance work and life. It took nearly ten years in coaching to realize he couldn’t just hustle his way through everything. What changed was a combination of family and intentional practice.
These days, he leans on golf – being outside with the air, the birds, the sun, and a mix of good and bad shots that force him to slow down and get out of his head. He leans on coming home and letting his daughter’s smile reset his mindset. He leans on asking his wife how she is doing, instead of letting stress swallow up the entire evening.
He also names something that many men will recognize: for a long time, he kept everything inside. He didn’t want to talk about his problems. He thought holding it all in was the way to cope. Eventually, he realized that silence only made things heavier. Allowing himself to be open with people he loves, and finding something he enjoys on his own, has become part of his mental health toolkit.
Facing Loss and Planning for the Future
Toward the end of the episode, the conversation pivots to a topic many people avoid, especially men in high-pressure roles: planning for the future, including end-of-life decisions.
Tiffany shares the story of her grandfather, who had every document and benefit lined up before he passed. That level of planning meant that when her family was grieving, they weren’t left scrambling. She asks Jordan if he and his wife have started that process.
He admits that it’s something he resisted at first. Talking about life insurance and end-of-life planning felt uncomfortable. But becoming a father changed his perspective. So did loss. Four months after he accepted his job at Loyola, his own father passed away suddenly.
That experience was a shock and a turning point. It made him more willing to face hard conversations about what would happen to his family if he weren’t there. With his wife nudging him forward, he’s leaning into that planning now – not out of fear, but out of love and responsibility.
Success as a Habit, and Coaching as Care
When Tiffany asks how he would sum up his philosophy, Jordan returns to a line from one of his early head coaches: “Success is a habit, not a goal”.
For him, that means showing up consistently every day – for his players, his family, his own health – rather than chasing a single destination. It means treating people well, not just chasing a better record.
His advice to other coaches is straightforward: remember that you are needed in ways that go far beyond the scoreboard. Wins and losses shape careers, but the way you treat people shapes lives. Caring about the whole person, not just the performance, is the work. It is what athletes remember long after the last game.
Why This Episode Matters
This episode matters because it pulls back the curtain on what it really looks like to lead in sports while still being human. Jordan’s story reminds us that:
- Student athletes need comprehensive care – physical, mental, and emotional – not just practice reps.
- Mental health support in athletics has to be modeled from the top, not just offered on paper.
- Coaches are often pouring into everyone else and need their own village, too.
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Conversations about planning for the future, including end-of-life decisions, belong in our broader health equity work, especially in Black and Brown communities.
For parents, athletes, coaches, and anyone balancing a demanding calling with a full life at home, this episode offers both honesty and hope. It shows that you can be competitive and compassionate, ambitious and grounded, structured and vulnerable.
Join the Conversation
Unfiltered is more than a podcast. Powered by Acclinate’s NOWINCLUDED community, it’s a space where real stories and real health conversations live side by side.
Inside the community, you can learn from medically reviewed resources created with you in mind, hear from people whose lived experiences reflect your own, and share your story in a space that celebrates who you are, on and off the court.
If this episode with Jordan McCann resonated with you – as a coach, a parent, a student athlete, or someone trying to balance purpose and wellness – we invite you to keep the conversation going.
Stream Episode 4 of Unfiltered and join the NOWINCLUDED community to be part of the village.
